A Pop-Culture Podcast

Month: July 2018

The guys went to a Horror Movie night at Rick’s this week and RDT watched the whole thing. It was impressive. Even more impressive was that he was still able to talk to Loren about the week’s pop-culture news! They talked stories like:

Ryan Reynolds developing Stoned Alone

Charlie’s Angels reboot details

Dune remake to be split into 2 movies

Fox & Disney shareholders have approved the acquisition

MoviePass (temporarily) ran out of money

Seann Williamm Scotttt will not be playing Marvin Riggs in LW season 3

Welcome to the Weekend Watch. Where we try to point you towards the best ways to spend your viewing time (or, at least, steer you clear of the garbage).

Movies

Wide Release

Mission: Impossible – Fallout

Loren: I’m sorry that looks awesome. The Mission: Impossible movies are by and large pretty good. 1 still holds up, 2 and 3 are not great, but the new trilogy has so far been a lot of fun. Early word on this is it’s excellent. I’m very excited.

RDT: I like 3! Only 2 is complete garbage to me. And I think this looks awesome.

Teen Titans Go! To The Movies

Loren: Damnit. I don’t really like Teen Titans Go’s humor but I laughed at some of the stuff from that trailer. I’m not going to see this in the theater but I’ll watch it eventually. Plus anything to wash that Titans trailer from my mind.

RDT: I’ve never seen, or had any interest in, the show. Which is a little off for me, given the DC nerd that I am. Oh well….

The Lady™: I worked at a restaurant where for some god forsaken reason all the TVs were permanently on Cartoon Network. I’ve now seen almost every episode of Teen Titans Go! on mute. Maybe I’ll watch this on mute if I’m ever feeling nostalgic for the “weird old days.”

Rick: There are not a lot of animated shows I actively dislike, but this one is at the top of the list. WB took a high quality, well written Teen Titans series and dumped it in favor of this obnoxious garbage. The hardest of passes.

The Row

Loren: Don’t worry everybody, Randy Couture is on the case. Yikes. Even for this slasher sub genre, this looks bad.

RDT: I’m all set, thanks!

The Lady™:

Rick: Looks like most every killer on college campus slasher movie where the final girl needs to find out the school’s buried secret. I’d be fine with that if it didn’t look like a barely ready for cable thriller.

Limited Release

The Captain

Loren: An interesting story to tell but I will have a hard time with the whole Nazi thing.

RDT: No thank you.

The Lady™: WWII was a horror movie, so putting a psychologically damaging horror story in the middle of it doesn’t seem that far of a reach for me. I’m pretty tempted to traumatize myself attempting to watch this.

If you’re a regular listener, you may know there are plans afoot to reboot the GI Joe franchise. Before Hasbro and Hollywood fuck it up though, I thought I’d take a crack at it first.

My GI Joe movie gets to the core of the (1980’s) premise. No pseudo-Iron Man suits. No Marlon Wayans. And, perhaps regretfully, no Rock. Inspired by the original 1983 mini-series, this would be a wall-to-wall action flick.

Representing the best of each military branch, GI Joe is an elite squad tasked with the most difficult of missions. Cobra works from the shadows. The less known they are, the more effective they can be.

The plot is simple. Cobra is an underground terrorist group financed by Tomax & Xamot’s Extensive Enterprises. They’ve stolen an advanced military weapons satellite. The US government, fearing public outcry, tasks General Hawk with recruiting a small team to go in and recover it, hopefully taking down Cobra along the way.

Let’s talk casting.

The Joes:

Gung-Ho – Michael Rooker

RoadBlock – Mike Colter

Lady Jaye -Zoey Saldana

Scarlett – Jessica Chastain

Snake Eyes – Stunt guy (no flashbacks, never seen with his mask off, no talking)

Duke – Chris Pine

General Hawk – Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Cobra:

Tomax/Xamot – Armie Hammer

Zartan – Joel Edgerton

Zarana – Isla Fisher

Baroness – Haley Atwell

Destro – Idris Elba

Storm Shadow – Jay Chou

Dr. Mindbender – Ben Kingsley

Cobra Commander – Ben Mendelsohn

Director: Fuck it, James Gunn. I think he’d really nail the tone, have some fun with it.

Welcome to the Weekend Watch. Where we try to point you towards the best ways to spend your viewing time (or, at least, steer you clear of the garbage).

Movies

Wide Release

The Equalizer 2

Loren: More of the same from the first. Having just seen the original the character is fresh in my mind, but I still don’t see myself rushing out to see this.

RDT: I enjoyed the original (if you can call a remake of a tv show “original”) a lot more than I thought I would. But, I’m so behind on movies, if I make it to the theater this weekend, it likely will not be to see this.

The Lady™: This looks pretty bad ass. However, I didn’t even know there was a first one. So the chances of me seeing the second are about 0.00002%.

Jen: The original TV “Equalizer” was Edward Woodward. I so enjoy saying that name ‘Edward Woodward’ it just rolls off the tongue. No offense to Denzel Washington. In regards to the movie, I never saw the first one and I don’t feel remiss.

Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again

Loren: The big question is; is the threequel called Mamma Mia: My My, How Can I Resist You? Or Mamma Mia: Does It Show Again?

RDT: I saw the first one once, in a free screening, 10 years ago. Apparently, there was a reel missing (back in the days before digital projection). I didn’t notice. So, yeah…..

The Lady™: I’m neither old enough nor young enough to have any interest in this movie.

Jen: They are reusing a lot of the same songs from the first one, which is fine, I guess. I just think maybe they could have done the sequel set to some other band’s greatest hits catalog instead. Why not an Ace of Base musical? I’d watch Cher sing “The Sign” any day of the week.

Unfriended: Dark Web

Loren: This looks cheap but also ok. I guess you can do that sometimes. I’m definitely not seeing this in the theater, probably ever if I’m being honest.

RDT: Horror + “didn’t see the first one” = No RDT.

The Lady™: It’s really difficult to get into a horror movie when you don’t care if the people die. This is why you don’t touch other people’s stuff!

Jen: I’m sure a lot of teens will see this and it will make its money back. Good for them, because I’m out. Continue reading →

Welcome to the Weekend Watch. Where we try to point you towards the best ways to spend your viewing time (or, at least, steer you clear of the garbage).

Movies

Wide Release

Skyscraper

Loren: Look I’m not out or anything but this just looks silly. However, if I didn’t have a backlog of movies I want to see in the theater, this might be the perfect flick to beat the heat that this horrendous heatwave has brought upon us.

RDT: I desperately want to see this, no joke. But, like Loren, I’m super behind on movies. So, this might have to wait a bit.

Jen: This looks terrible…ly awesome! Ridiculous, but worth some popcorn and A/C time for sure.

Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation

Loren: *Sigh* I know kids are the audience for these things but aren’t they supposed to have jokes for adults too? Also sweet Gru impression there Drac. *Sigh*

RDT: Jen wins.

Jen: This movies wants to suck my blood, but instead it just sucks.

Eighth Grade

Loren: This is the writing and directorial debut for stand up comic Bo Burnham. He came to prominence when he was young on YouTube so the social media aspect of this most likely comes from personal experience. I’ve heard nothing but good things about this movie and it looks equally heartfelt and heart wrenching.

RDT: This just slotted in front of Skyscraper.

Jen: I cringed so hard during this trailer I wonder if I can manage to get through the whole thing. It definitely took me right back to being 12 years old and that actress is fantastic. It’s going on the list. Continue reading →